Big George Brock still packs a punchBig George Brock is a 74-year-old former heavyweight boxer who still packs a double punch as a powerful harmonica player and blues singer. His new CD, Round Two (Cat Head Records), follows last year’s successful Club Caravan, which was nominated for a Handy award.[FULL
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Lawsuit aims to stop groupMembers of Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., were again busy this week picketing funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq, but lawsuits filed by families who have lost their loved ones could stop the church group from taunting grieving relatives.[FULL
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Sheikh, rattle and roll as war goes on Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader, didn’t do the Lebanese any favors when he picked a fight with Israel. He’s still firing rockets into Israel, but look at the price he’s paying: Hundreds of his fighters dead, thousands more Lebanese civilians killed and injured and much of his country in ruins.[FULL
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Beware: Lines are signs of WWIIIYou can tell from the long lines of cars outside Little Rock Air Force Base that the nation is at war. Security is extremely tight, as it is throughout the country and at all U.S. military installations around the world.[FULL
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Huckabee pardons another drunkGov. Huckabee blundered twice this week: He leased a brand-new Suburban at taxpayers’ expense for nearly $900 a month, the gold-plated version, no less, even though he has only six months left in office. What was wrong with the old one?[FULL
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Down in BentoniaFor Sam Myers, 1935-2006 Down in Bentonia, Miss., deep in the Delta, a couple of fast-fingered bluesmen strummed their guitars and sang in a haunting falsetto, creating the Bentonia blues sound.[FULL
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AUG. 12, 2006

Cabot Junior High School North caught on fire Thursday afternoon while students registered. Many area responders assisted Cabot firefighters as they battled the blaze.

Local family races for fun and futureIN SHORT: Bryan, Kip and Nick Glaze all race in different series around the country. Bryan’s venture in the Hooters Pro-Cup series is a stepping stone for Nick’s racing future. [FULL
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Lonoke achieves breakthroughIN SHORT:Despite a pair of injuries, the Jackrabbits have made big strides in week two.[FULL
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Sophomores standing out for PanthersIN SHORT:Cabot’s 10th-grade class has stepped up this summer to fill holes left by small junior and senior classes. [FULL
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‘Good,’ ‘bad’ governors Economic statistics can prove to be so perverse, but rarely to such an extreme as the report card that the Arkansas Policy Foundation issued the past week on the job-creating performance of Arkansas governors since World War II.[FULL
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The Fed does nothing After 17 straight periods in which it raised benchmark interest rates, the Federal Reserve yesterday lay doggo. Equity exchanges, bond markets, traders and economists everywhere waited for that news and then, their prayers answered, didn’t know what to make of it. The indexes fluctuated wildly and then finished, very oddly, lower across the board.[FULL
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Casinos Royale By winter, Arkansas will have casinos at Hot Springs and West Memphis, the first since Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller shut down the illegal ones at Hot Springs in 1968.[FULL
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Adios, Paron Should anyone by now have any doubts, the seven justices of the Arkansas Supreme Court let it be known this week that they are serious about finally requiring the state to follow the state Constitution’s 130-year-old mandate that it provide a good education to every child, equally and efficiently.[FULL
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Huckabee in Frisco Gov. Huckabee pops up nowadays in the most unusual venues, newspaper offices, as he plies his unofficial campaign for president. [FULL
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Special election is ill adviced Pulaski County, which is too broke to afford to house hardly any new prisoners, is about to get $100,000 deeper in debt and be out of jail options because of the quorum court’s ill-advised decision to hold a special election. [FULL
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Internet disputes Every-thing’s up to date in Arkansas this week, with a pair of high-tech news items grabbing our attention.[FULL
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We'll pay piper twice Did you catch the numbing remark in the state newspaper this week about the land value of the rugged slopes south of Lake Maumelle that the water utility for central Arkansas is trying to buy to keep your water safe?[FULL
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